Metal Gear Solid creator fields fan questions at Eurogamer Expo

Hideo Kojima's developer session at the Eurogamer Expo this afternoon revealed a number of interesting details, including his responsibility to new games, plans for the LA studio and a call about Silent Hill from the president of Konami.

Asked about Metal Gear Online, he said the game had failed to find the same success abroad as it did in Japan because of differing gameplay tastes, but future online titles would avoid this with a new development studio.

"I think for the next implementation of an online component, we're looking to have it be accepted more in Europe and in the Americas," he explained through a translator.

"So rather than develop it in Japan we're looking at developing it at our LA studio, that Kojima Productions is currently in the process of creating."

With the questions supplied by fans that were also queries about the possibility of Kojima returning to some of his older titles, like Policenauts and Snatchers.

"Personally I love adventure games and I would love to create additional chapters in the Snatcher or Policenauts series, but unfortunately from a business perspective it is quite hard to make that work, and I feel it's my job to push the industry forward, so I don't think I could really make it."

Later he added that his previous comments about the Silent Hill franchise, in which he offered use of the Fox engine to the development team, had led to a call from the president of Konami, offering him the job of making the next installment in the series.

"That said I think Silent Hill has a very unique atmosphere and a very unique feel to it, and I'd hate to see that disappear. So it does have to continue, and I'd like to help it continue, so if I can help somehow by supervising or lending technology with the FOX engine then I'd love to participate in that respect."

Kojima also treated fans to a preview of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

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Ironically, I'm sure associating Kojima with a more traditional adventure game with a strong focus on character development and storytelling would not only revitalize the genre, it would also, in fact, push the industry forward as we try to move away from simple run-and-gun games to ones with more meaning and substance.

There have been many interesting design moments scattered about the often expositionally heavy MGS games. Use of camouflage, nutrition and personal health, dynamic battlefield participation, along with making stealth games as a genre more of a thing (depending on who you are, he can get the blame/credit for this). I'd never argue that the gameplay would be enough if you don't buy into the world of MGS, but there have always been some interesting ideas sprinkled on top of Kojima's storytelling.

I guess it's all a matter of preference where it comes to finding the games interesting.

However, we can't deny as an industry how the format of play has fundamentally changed the way in which we portrayed our game world.

I am talking about the original Metal Gear Solid here, subsequent releases being respectable in their own way.

To start, the idea of real time graphics being projected as cinematics to aid the narrative was something that hadn't really been done effectively up til the point where MGS surfaced. Games had done it to a point, but nothing really on the scale that MGS offered.

Kojima and Co. also took some real steps forward in developing characters that were received in Europe and the Americas as well as in Japan. In my opinion Snake is instantly recognisable to every gaming community, not just the Japanese.

Kojima's design is spot on for games in my opinion, though I do agree that in the later games the control is taken away from the player for a good proportion of the game.

However, his inspiration alone has probably pushed designers in other companies to emulate or better his style in some way; so I genuinely believe he's always raising the bar in his work and leading the way with his 'no excuse for mediocrity' attitude.

Kojima's unique position as a creator certainly gives him th' freedom to bring a lot more idiosyncracies to his games. Sometimes when they're great ideas [ eg. Psycho Mantis ] it's wonderful however to be fair there's also plenty of bad design in the "Metal Gear" games. To the point where it feels like an inherently 8 -bit design that's been updated for today's new flesh.

When Kojima says he wants to "push games forward" I hope he's serious about tackling significant problems like player agency that's not on rails ., emergent narratives an' rich interactions w/ other characters & environments. Th' next generation is going to show -up this disparity between in game actions vs. representation even more; an' arguably you can already see this in th' previews o' "Watch Dogs" where there's th' same problem as with GTA4 o' running around a largely dead backdrop.

Don't get me wrong ., I like Kojima but he has said himself that his aspirations have always been as a writer. Though thankfully through th' constraints o' th' video game format we have this happy accident called "Metal Gear". Much respect to Yoji Shinkawa as well ., whose vision an' art direction has driven th' series forwards. It's really time those guys were given th' chance an' budget to work on something else -- but hey Konami doesn't have a lot o' rabbits in th' bag at th' moment.